Linux NIC Bonding/Teaming

Linux NIC Bonding/Teaming

Bonding is nothing but Linux kernel feature that allows to aggregate multiple like interfaces (such as eth0, eth1) into a single virtual link such as bond0. The idea is pretty simple get higher data rates and as well as link failover.

The Linux bonding driver provides a method for aggregating multiple network interfaces into a single logical "bonded" interface. The behavior of the bonded interfaces depends upon the mode; generally speaking, modes provide either hot standby or load balancing services. Additionally, link integrity monitoring may be performed.

Step #1: Create a Bond0 Configuration File

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (and its clone such as CentOS) stores network configuration in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory. First, you need to create a bond0 config file as follows:

# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0

Append the following lines:

DEVICE=bond0
IPADDR=192.168.1.110
NETWORK=192.168.1.0
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
USERCTL=no
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes

You need to replace IP address with your actual setup. Save and close the file.

Step #2: Modify eth0 and eth1 config files

Open both configuration using a text editor such as vi/vim, and make sure file read as follows for eth0 interface.
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
Modify/append directive as follows:
DEVICE=eth0
USERCTL=no
ONBOOT=yes
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
BOOTPROTO=none



Open eth1 configuration file using vi text editor, enter:


# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1



Make sure file read as follows for eth1 interface:
DEVICE=eth1
USERCTL=no
ONBOOT=yes
MASTER=bond0
SLAVE=yes
BOOTPROTO=none
Save and close the file.

Step # 3: Load bond driver/module

Make sure bonding module is loaded when the channel-bonding interface (bond0) is brought up. You need to modify kernel modules configuration file:
# vi /etc/modprobe.conf
Append following two lines:
alias bond0 bonding
options bond0 mode=balance-alb miimon=100
Save file and exit to shell prompt.

Step # 4: Test configuration

First, load the bonding module, enter:
# modprobe bonding
Restart the networking service in order to bring up bond0 interface, enter:
# service network restart
Make sure everything is working. Query the current status of Linux kernel bounding driver.
# cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0



Sample outputs:

Bonding Mode: load balancing (round-robin)
MII Status: up
MII Polling Interval (ms): 100
Up Delay (ms): 200
Down Delay (ms): 200
Slave Interface: eth0
MII Status: up
Link Failure Count: 0
Permanent HW addr: 00:0c:29:c6:be:59
Slave Interface: eth1
MII Status: up
Link Failure Count: 0
Permanent HW addr: 00:0c:29:c6:be:63

To kist all network interfaces, enter:
# ifconfig
Sample outputs:

bond0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0C:29:C6:BE:59
  inet addr:192.168.1.20  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
  inet6 addr: fe80::200:ff:fe00:0/64 Scope:Link
  UP BROADCAST RUNNING MASTER MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
  RX packets:2804 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
  TX packets:1879 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
  collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
  RX bytes:250825 (244.9 KiB)  TX bytes:244683 (238.9 KiB)
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0C:29:C6:BE:59
  inet addr:192.168.1.20  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
  inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fec6:be59/64 Scope:Link
  UP BROADCAST RUNNING SLAVE MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
  RX packets:2809 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
  TX packets:1390 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
  collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
  RX bytes:251161 (245.2 KiB)  TX bytes:180289 (176.0 KiB)
  Interrupt:11 Base address:0x1400
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:0C:29:C6:BE:59
  inet addr:192.168.1.20  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
  inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fec6:be59/64 Scope:Link
  UP BROADCAST RUNNING SLAVE MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
  RX packets:4 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
  TX packets:502 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
  collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
  RX bytes:258 (258.0 b)  TX bytes:66516 (64.9 KiB)
  Interrupt:10 Base address:0x1480